1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information retrieval method and apparatus and a related program in a memory medium, for the retrieval of information and the creation of a record, in memory, concerning the location of that information and, more particularly, to an information retrieval method and apparatus and related program in a memory medium which can retrieve, efficiently, useful information which is used frequently by one or more users on a local network. The information retrieval is executed by a user making an inquiry for the required information, such as by a keyword search request, on a user-friendly interface. The apparatus, method, and program of the invention will efficiently retrieve the required information and store the retrieved, required information in a memory of the user""s apparatus (memory section), making future retrieval of that information by the same or other users on the local network more efficient.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, with the growth of the Internet, the number of home pages, or web sites, which contain useful information is greatly increasing. A user generally uses a mechanism, such as a search engine, etc., to search for the required information.
The retrieval mechanism, using an existing search engine, requires procedures such that an access is made to a home page of a search engine offering the service. Retrieval is executed by inputting a keyword.
When the search is completed, the search engine will return a list of all information that matches the keyword (so-called, xe2x80x9chitsxe2x80x9d). This often results in significant volumes of information being returned, much of it redundant and almost all of which is superfluous to the specific requirement. The user, moreover, must manually search through the retrieved information to find the most important information corresponding to the keyword.
Further, once the information has been retrieved and to enable future retrieval of this such information, the user may register the URL (Internet address), of the home page from which the information was retrieved, in a list by performing a task commonly referred to as xe2x80x9cbookmarking.xe2x80x9d Future access to the desired home page is executed simply by selecting the respective URL address from the xe2x80x9cbookmarkxe2x80x9d list. The xe2x80x9cbookmarkxe2x80x9d list, however, requires periodic manual maintenance in order to maintain the content thereof current.
Since these tasks are executed on a personal computer of a specific user, it is necessary to manually supply identification information, such as a required URL retrieved by one party, to a third party who has a requirement for the same identification information.
Moreover, in order to obtain important information on a timely basis, a user must periodically access each particular information source (e.g., home page) to check and determine whether new information has been added or whether changes have been made.
The foregoing tasks for obtaining and upgrading information are time consuming and greatly reduce the efficiency and effectiveness of retrieving information under conventional, current-day techniques and equipment.
The foregoing and other problems with the prior art are overcome by the invention, as to each of the apparatus, method, and program thereof stored in a memory medium. More particularly, an information retrieval apparatus, such as a personal computer (xe2x80x9cPCxe2x80x9d), in accordance with the present invention, includes a memory section or data base storing identification information of respective processing apparatuses which may be queried in accordance with a keyword search request. The identification information comprises plural records, each record including an IP address and name identification of a respective processing apparatuses, or personal computer (PC), a URL thereof, a keyword and related information such as a date of registration, a last access date, a number of accesses and a rank of importance of the record.
A keyword search request, or information retrieval request, input by a user of the user/inquiring PC is received by the user PC interface, which performs an initial search of the database (memory) of the user PC, to retrieve therefrom identification information for respective highest ranked information source relevant to the keyword search request/inquiry and which may include the file name of the user""s own processing apparatus. If a file name is retrieved, the existence of the requested information is affirmed and the URL retrieved from the corresponding record is displayed and the access number is incremented and, in accordance with predetermined access number ranges, a rank of importance in the record for the involved information source is updated.
If no identification information is available from the data base of the user PC, a further search is conducted for identifying from the data base of the user/inquiring PC any third party PCs connected to the common local network and having a highest order of importance for the keyword of the search request. If such a third party PC exists, the system retrieves the URL and displays same to the inquiring/user PC information and updates the data base of the inquiring user PC accordingly.
If no such information is received, the user/inquiring PC requests the introduction of a different, third party PC, connected to the common local network by issuing the keyword search request over the local network. In other words, a keyword search is requested by the requesting (first) PC to the PCs on the network to obtain data information (step 127). If such a third party PC is identified, the requesting user PC sends the keyword to that introduced third party PC, a search is conducted based thereon; if identification information exists, the same is recognized and sent to the requesting user PC for display of the URL and updating the data base by creating a new record therein corresponding to the received information.
If no data information is available, i.e., if none of the PCs on the network has relevant information, the requesting PC chooses a second PC according to the rank of importance relative to that of the first PC itself and asks for identification information (112b). The identification information is an address (e.g., IP address) of which PC may have the relevant information. The responding (second) PC then looks for identification information stored in its database. The identification information is of the address of a third PC which is of higher rank of importance relative to that of the second PC itself. According to the identification information (e.g., IP address) of the third PC introduced by the responding (second) PC, the requesting (first) PC issues the request for data information concerning the keyword (112d).
Once the invention has determined that no relevant information exists on the local network, an automatic connection to an Internet search engine is, or can be, effected. The results of the Internet search, once accessed by the user, likewise may be used to create a new record and thereby update the data base of the inquiring user PC.
Further, each third party PC which is accessed by an inquiring user PC may have the respective data base thereof updated to increment the number of accesses and correspondingly adjust the rank of importance of the record.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a retrieval processing apparatus, method and related program in a memory medium that provides effective retrieval of information on the Internet. The present invention provides an apparatus that realizes effective retrieval of frequently used information with a simplified interface and simplified procedures relative to Internet searching procedures currently in use.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide such an apparatus, method and process in a memory medium that allows the sharing of URL address information by all users on a local network. The present invention will allow a user to easily search for desired information that has been previously retrieved by another user on the same local network.
The present invention furthermore provides a more efficient procedure to locate and share information on the Internet. This is in contrast to, and an improvement over, the conventional situation in which the returned information, provided by existing mechanical keyword retrieval, often results in significant volumes of information being returned as xe2x80x9chitsxe2x80x9d, almost all of which is superfluous to the specific requirement. The user is required to search for and select the needed, specific information from the xe2x80x9chitsxe2x80x9d, resulting in a significant time requirement.
A further object of the invention is to automate the registration of a URL for a home page so it may be accessed again, either by the original user or any other user, on the local network.
An additional feature of the present invention is to provide a processing apparatus that automatically shares all stored URL addresses among all users on a local network. Currently, individual users"" URL lists are kept solely on the user""s personal computer, with no means to share the information. In relation thereto, the present invention has, as a further object thereof, to provide a memory medium that automatically provides for the prioritization of stored URL""s, based on frequency of usage. Conversely, previously stored URL""s, which have not be accessed by any user on the local network for a user-prescribed period of time, will be deleted, thereby to preserve memory capacity.
The present invention, moreover, identifies an apparatus processing section (e.g., a personal computer) which has the most recent information for a specific keyword inquiry, as a xe2x80x9cparticular information sourcexe2x80x9d. This processing section is identified in the database, as such, and affords a preferential query to improve overall efficiency.
In addition, a user, in conventional systems, currently has no way to determine if additional, or updated, useful information is available on a particular home page. In order to make this determination, the user is required to check, by periodically making access to that particular information source (e.g., a home page). This invention combines the results of many users"" searches for information and updates the memory with the most current locations and addresses where relevant information is stored.